* Farm budget should be kept at current level, lawmakers say
* Policy reform should avoid radical redistribution of funds
* EU exec says lawmakers views will feed into reform plans
By Charlie Dunmore
BRUSSELS, July 8 (Reuters) - Farm spending should continue
to take the largest share of the European Union's budget up to
2020, EU lawmakers voted on Thursday in a signal of their
opposition to a radical reform of EU farm policy from 2013.
The common agricultural policy (CAP) currently consumes
about 40 percent of the bloc's 120 billion euro ($151.2 billion)
annual budget, and is a prime target for those wishing to shift
EU spending to new priorities such as energy and innovation.
"Since the CAP will have to confront many challenges and
pursue broader objectives after 2013, it is essential that the
budget ... is at least maintained at current levels," the
European Parliament said in a non-legislative resolution adopted
by a large majority.
The vote allied parliament with EU states such as France and
Germany, who want to maintain current CAP spending levels after
2013, but pitted it against Britain and some within the EU's
executive, who argue the money would be better spent elsewhere.
Ahead of Thursday's vote, the lawmaker leading the
parliamentary debate -- Scottish liberal George Lyon -- said
many EU states "including the big two" had lobbied members
directly to urge them to support the resolution.
"I think that's an important signal to the (European)
Commission about where the consensus lies in this," Lyon told
Reuters.
Despite the emerging consensus among lawmakers and key EU
states, who will have a joint say in the CAP reform process,
Lyon predicted on Wednesday that farm spending would not escape
the sweeping cuts being made to public spending across Europe.
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The Commission is due to put forward legislative proposals
on reform of the CAP by next June, around the same time as it is
expected to propose the shape and size of the EU's overall
budget for 2014-2020.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said after the
vote that parliament's resolution would "provide useful input
into our deliberations" on the reform proposals.
NO RADICAL REDISTRIBUTION
The parliament said the CAP's current two-pillar structure
should be maintained, with direct payments to farmers under the
first pillar complemented by extra subsidies under the second,
which is designed to promote rural development measures.
The lower level of direct aid paid to farmers in EU states
that joined the bloc since 2004 must also be addressed in the
reform, the parliament said.
But the lawmakers stopped short of calling for "equal"
distribution, and said instead that it should be "fair", and
added that the reform should "avoid too radical a redistribution
of support".
By 2020, all member states should allocate direct payments
to farmers on a per-hectare basis, lawmakers said, although
countries may retain a limited link between subsidies and
production levels for vulnerable areas and sectors.
Market management tools such as storage intervention should
be kept after 2013 as a "safety net" against price volatility
and market crises, the resolution said.
But export refunds should continue to be phased out in line
with the EU's international trade commitments, the parliament
added.
(Reporting by Charlie Dunmore, editing by Anthony Barker)
